


I Can't Sleep

by TheLittlestGiftGiver (Superellysan)



Series: Prompt Drabble Collection [6]
Category: Rockman X | Mega Man X, Rockman | Mega Man - All Media Types
Genre: Cain is ded, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Long Drabble, Maybe a bit corny but oh well, Nightmares, Sleepy Cuddles, X is ver sad about that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-28
Updated: 2018-07-28
Packaged: 2019-06-17 16:04:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15465051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Superellysan/pseuds/TheLittlestGiftGiver
Summary: The old man kicks the bucket in a lab explosion, and even weeks after his death X is still having nightmares about it. He thinks maybe Zero's company will help him get a peaceful night's rest.Zero doesn't really see how it would, but he's willing to try it.





	I Can't Sleep

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: "I can't sleep, can I sleep here?" X and Zero.  
> Requested by/written for: Fayelight

It was nearing the end of the day when the council meeting Zero had been forced to sit at finally let out. His feet clicked on the tiled floor as he wearily walked his way back to his quarters for a recharge before his early-morning training session with his unit.

Tapping in the code, he sighed as the door slid open, his eyes briefly scanning around his sparsely populated room. It was standard hunter fare, a recharge pod and a desk, with an added sprinkling of shelves and a few knickknacks from over the years. His temporary home away from base had had more stuff in it: a bed, a couch, a scrapbooking project X had convinced him to work on, a bookshelf filled with old history books and miniature dioramas of wartime machinery from the past, and an actual honest-to-god _closet_ filled with clothes for when Cain finally got around to modding Zero to be able to take his armor off. Of course, the chance for that, along with all his stuff, was long gone now.

He was just getting in his recharge pod when he heard someone rapping on his door in a one-four-one pattern. Didn’t need to look to see who it was.  
“X, just come on in.”  
“Can’t,” said the visitor at the door, his voice a tinge too meek for Zero’s liking. “It’s locked.”  
“Then just put in the… right, I changed it. Hold on.”  
Begrudgingly, the crimson hunter dragged himself out of the pod and walked over to the door, waving it open.

There stood his friend, seeming a lot smaller than usual due to his timid stance and over-sized sleeping garments.

“You need to stop wearing his hand-me-downs, X.”  
“They’re all I have left,” X replied, his fingers rubbing nervously at the hem of his sleeves.  
“Still…” Zero replied, uncomfortably aware of how his comment made X shrink all the more. “Nightmares again?”  
X nodded. “I can’t sleep. Can I sleep here?”  
“I don’t see how sleeping here would help. Maybe you should go see Lifesaver, or-”  
“Please.”

Zero almost flinched at the despondent plea, and realized it had been awhile since he’d seen his friend so close to breaking down in tears. He also realized how _tired_ his friend looked, his stance not so much timid like he’d thought, but anxious and exhausted.  
He sighed, taking a step back and motioning into his chambers. “Alright, if you think it will help. I don’t have a second recharging pod though.”  
“That’s fine,” X replied, visibly sagging in relief as he brushed past Zero and walked inside. “I can make do with a charging wire and the floor.”  
“No, _I’ll_ make do,” Zero interjected, closing the door and turning back. He pressed his fingers upwards against the rim of his earpiece, ejecting a thin wire and holding it between his fingers. “You’re taking the pod.”  
“Zero, I’m already intruding, I’m not going to- Hey!”

X had scarcely turned around before Zero put him in a headlock, ignoring his friend’s sloppy attempts at pulling free as he slid open the input port on his friend’s earpiece and slotted the wire in. His friend squirmed in protest as Zero read the data charts he was getting from the blue hunter, keenly aware that X was pulling up the red hunter’s own data charts as well.

In a few seconds Zero had X’s energy levels up.  “Five percent!?”  
X sagged in his arms, sighing. “You don’t need to give me the lecture, Zero.”  
He disagreed, but damn did his friend know him well.  
Zero loosened his grip, and the headlock quickly turned into a supporting embrace as X haphazardly stumbled. “How long?”  
“Two weeks?” X answered hesitantly, pushing his way out of Zero’s arms. He fell forward, nearly bashing his head against the edge of the recharge pod as he leaned on it for support.  
The crimson hunter scowled, starting to get the picture. “Any shutdowns?”  
“….. A few.”  
“Intentional?”  
X’s shoulders sagged. “…… Maybe…”  
“X-”  
“ _I can’t sleep, Zero.”_

He internally winced at how pointed X’s words were. X glanced back at him, and his eyes were clouded by exhaustion and sorrow. “I… I could have done something. I could have…..”  
Zero sighed, looping an arm around his friend. “X, you know you couldn’t have-“  
“I know,” X bluntly said, cutting him off. “But if I was there, I could have.”  
“That’s not your fault,” Zero replied, gingerly prying X’s hands off his pod. “There was a maverick attack, and you were the only one we had who could respond in time.”  
X leaned back into Zero, more from exhaustion and his lost perch than for comfort, and sighed. A few tears slid from his eyes, and he mumbled, “‘No one could have predicted the lab exploding.’ That’s what you’re gonna say, right?”

Damn, his friend _really_ knew him well.

“You saved a lot of lives that day, X,” Zero said instead, rubbing his thumbs over the back of X’s hands in the same manner X did to sooth others. “If you hadn’t responded so early, there would have been a lot more casualties.”  
“But I was supposed to be with him,” X replied, leaning his head back onto Zero’s shoulder as the tears fell thicker. “I was supposed to _be there.”_  
Zero glanced over at his friend, before sighing irritably. “Okay, no more staring at the ceiling with misty eyes.”

Wrapping one arm around his friend’s waist to support him, Zero took his hand and placed it over the other’s eyes.  
“Listen to me, X,” Zero began, acutely aware that X was barely standing at this point, “I know you miss him. Hell, I miss him too. But there wasn’t anything you could do, whether you had been there or not.”  
He sighed. “And, to be blunt, he was already dying. At least he died doing what he loved, instead of wasting away in a hospital bed. He _definitely_ wouldn’t have wanted that.”

“……. Pfft,” X snorted, pulling Zero’s hand away and staring into his eyes with a hint of mirth. “‘To be blunt’, huh?”  
Smiling back at the ceiling, he continued, “But yeah, he really wouldn’t have.” His smile dulled a fraction, and his eyes began to dim. “Still…. I….”

Zero caught him as X slumped toward the ground. “Hey, don’t shut down on me!”  
“Sorry….” X mumbled back while trying unsuccessfully to stand back up.  
X’s hand reached toward the charging port on the side of Zero’s pod, but Zero scooped him up before he could grab it. “Oh no, you’re taking the recharge pod and that’s final. _I’ll_ take the cord.”  
X frowned. “Zero, no. This is your pod and you need the full charge to be sated.”  
“I can be sated with a charge cord,” Zero argued.  
“Says the person on a 10% charge,” X retorted back.  
Zero cussed silently under his breath, and his friend smirked.  
“Yes, I did notice, Zero.”

A sigh escaped the red hunter’s lips, and X winced as he was unceremoniously dropped into the pod. “Well, I only _have_ one recharge pod, and you need it more, so I’ll be fine with a cord charge.”  
X struggled to push himself up, and as his hands scrapped against the inside of the pod Zero could see the retort forming on his lips fizzle out with a spark of inspiration.

Zero watched as X looked back and forth between the pod walls, a smile creeping onto his face. “Hey, why don’t we share?”  
“What.”  
Lightly patting his chest, X continued. “Without my armor, I’m small enough to rest on top of you, and we both need the full charge. Also, us sharing it won’t dismiss the charge in any way since the pod’s interior is designed to simply speed up the regular rest and recharging process and not to charge directly. So let’s both use it.”  
Zero put his hand to his chin in thought. “That….. would work, I suppose.”  
“So?” X asked, his voice trailing off.  
Zero pondered it a moment, before replying, “Sure, let’s do it.”  
X smiled, his arms barely lifting up towards the red hunter. “Great… then…”

Zero leaned down and picked X up again, holding him against his chest as he turned around and settled back into the pod. With a click of a button the pod door closed over them, and not a second had passed before X was fast asleep, his head nestled between Zero’s neck and shoulder.  
“ _Man, his internal processors are loud_ ,” Zero thought to himself, shifting slightly as he popped two charging cables out of the pod’s wall. While not entirely necessary inside the pod, the direct cables did help with recharge speed. He gently slotted the first one into X’s earcone port before slotting the second into his own port and settling back.

As he drifted off, Zero remembered something and mentally cursed himself.  
“ _Nightmares. Right.”  
“..... I better not wake up screaming…”_

 

* * *

 

Morning came, and the two hunters peacefully awoke to the other’s warm embrace, which surprised Zero.   
After they had both gotten up, X thanked his friend for letting him rest there before heading back to his room, and the day went by like any other.

When night fell, Zero offered to let X share his pod again.  
“Until your nightmares go away,” he said, which was partly true. What he didn’t include was, “until mine go away as well.”  
X accepted it gratefully, and before long they were both once again sleeping soundly within each other’s arms.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed it! Please leave a kudos (or even a comment :)c) if you did; I see, read, and appreciate every single one!  
> Thank you to Fayelight for requesting this drabble, and thank you so much for taking the time to read it. I hope you have a wonderful day, and until next time!


End file.
